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“Yes, sweetheart?” January let Emma take her hands. They were so tiny, very hot, and incredibly sticky and clammy. She didn’t mind in the least. “Will you be my partner?”
“Of course.”
“You looked like you needed one. You were all by yourself.”
“But what about yours?”
Lily’s kids quickly opened their little circle to let the older boy who was paired up with Emma work with them.
“Okay,” January whispered. “I see.”
“We should work on this.” Emma twirled, throwing in a few steps to the side. “It’s my own move.”
“Wonderful,” Lily praised them as she walked by. She winked at January.
It wasn’t exactly subtle, what Lily was trying to do. She would never ask or tell January to stay in Greenacre, but after they’d cleaned up after tea, she’d taken her down main street, and walked the long way to the school, explaining all about how she and Sam met, talking about the village, about her passion for dance. She was probably trying to show January around Greenacre, and then let her meet some of the people there, especially the kids, in hopes that her resolve would soften and maybe crack.
How could she not stand there and love all these enthusiastic kids? They were adorable, each and every single one.
Lily did say that most kids went to school, but it was a different kind of school. They went part days if they were younger, and all day when they were older. The older ones helped out with the younger, just like with the dancing, and there were only one or two teachers. They taught the regular subjects, but also the shifter stuff. Lily hadn’t expanded that part and January forced herself not to ask. They went to school even in summer, but none of the kids complained. They didn’t do conventional learning. There probably weren’t even any desks in the classrooms, although January hadn’t gone and looked when they’d entered the school.
It wasn’t one of those small, one-room buildings like very old schools were. There was a hallway, several rooms, and a large gym with polished a wood floor. It was sided nicely, painted dark brown with lighter unstained cedar accents. Most of the buildings were built from wooden planks or more rustic with split logs, which made sense, given that the community was surrounded by forest.
“Watch me!” Emma did another twirl. She raised her leg this time, like a ballerina. “I want to do ballet, but Lily can’t teach just me.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Lily rushed over.
“The boys don’t want to do ballet.”
“It’s more that I don’t have the right training,” Lily mused. “But I’ll teach you what I know. I promise. We can all learn a few steps, and after each class, if you can stay for fifteen or twenty extra minutes, we’ll work on it.”
“Really?” Emma’s eyes went wide.
“Absolutely!”
Emma winced. “Mom said not to ask you. She said you were busy enough.”
Lily set her hand on the little girl’s shoulder. Every single child there was a shifter. Lily did say that didn’t start until they were ten, but it was hard to believe that this sweet, petite, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl would ever be a roaring, powerful bear. “I’m never too busy to dance. That’s what I love most in the world.”
Emma giggled. “You love Sam more than dance.”
Lily’s whole face changed, and it made January go soft inside, but also hot with longing. It didn’t make sense. How could she want to leave and be jealous of what Sam and Lily shared at the same time? It wasn’t like she was going out there, back to her old life, to find anyone. She wanted the exact opposite, and she wasn’t just saying so. She’d always thought, even when she’d dated and was married, that she and Jotham were just so independent and that’s why they didn’t miss each other with that heart aching, burning, horrible kind of intensity when they were apart. Or why they didn’t burn so bright when they were together.
“You’re right,” Lily giggled, flushing like she was a teenager even though she was probably January’s age. “I love Sam even more than I love dance.”
“My mom loves Thaddius even more than vintage clothes,” Emma declared.
Lily ruffled the little girl’s hair. “I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.”
“That’s a lot of love, because my momreallyloves vintage. It’s her job.”
January ran through the next steps of the dance with Emma, but her mind was whirring at a speed much more frantic than her body was moving and she certainly wasn’t thinking about anything dance related.
She was thinking about Tavish. As if she ever stopped... The strange sensations she'd been wrestling with, which seemed something more than love or lust at first sight—it was like her body wanted him. It didn't matter that she was thinking rationally about the whole mates thing, or the long distance between them—it was as if the moment she’d stepped into Greenacre her body had decided it was home. But she'd made mistakes before, so there was no way she was going to listen to her hormones.
Would she ever stop thinking about him, though? Would she stop thinking about this community that she’d only spent a few days in? Would the craziness that was obviously sweeping her away ever abate? Because she couldn’t want to stay here based on some vague weirdness about destiny with a man she’d only just met. She couldn’t want to be part of a town when her life was with her family nearly a twenty-four-hour drive away.
Her family thought she was absurd to have asked for a divorce and followed through with it when to them everything had seemed perfect between her and Jotham. What would everyone think if she declared that she was going to move across the country for a man she barely knew? There would be no end of worry, even if she moved in with June temporarily.
